How we helped a marketing agency eliminate their 5 biggest time-wasters

When my friend's marketing agency was drowning in inefficiency, he asked me to take a look at their operations. What I found were common productivity killers that plague most small businesses. Here's how we tackled them together—and the remarkable difference it made.

Communication chaos: The first priority

During my initial assessment, I witnessed a client crisis unfold in real time. Important messages were scattered across three different apps, team members were working with conflicting information, and they nearly lost a major account because of crossed wires.

How we fixed it: We consolidated everything into Slack with dedicated channels for each client and project. But the tool wasn't the solution—the system was. We created clear communication protocols: urgent issues got their own channel, client feedback followed a specific tagging system, and we instituted a daily 10-minute check-in to ensure nothing fell through the cracks.

Some team members initially pushed back (especially the veterans who were comfortable with their old methods), but resistance faded once they experienced how much easier it was to find information and coordinate efforts.

The data entry nightmare

After shadowing the team for a week, I calculated they were wasting nearly 40 hours monthly on redundant data entry—essentially a full-time position. They'd also had several embarrassing incidents where customer addresses were entered differently across platforms, resulting in shipments going to the wrong locations.

How we fixed it: I helped them connect their core systems using make.com—nothing fancy, just practical automations that eliminated duplicate work. Now when they enter a new client, the information automatically flows into their CRM, billing system, and project management platform.

The setup took one weekend and now saves them about 15 hours weekly. My favourite moment was when their operations manager realised she could finally focus on improving client onboarding instead of processing paperwork.

Automated data entry streamlining operations

Decision bottlenecks: Time wasters

Their content approval process was particularly painful to observe. I timed it: a simple blog post took an average of 12 days to complete, bouncing between five different people who often made contradictory edits. By the final version, the content had usually lost its original voice and purpose.

How we fixed it: We ran a workflow mapping session where we diagrammed their actual processes on a whiteboard. Seeing it visualized was eye-opening for everyone. Together, we eliminated redundant steps and implemented Trello boards with clear ownership for each stage.

The breakthrough came when I suggested establishing a "decider" role for each project type—one person with final authority when opinions differed. This wasn't about technology; it was about creating clarity and permission to move forward without perfect consensus.

Financial blindspots

When I asked about profit margins by client, the room went quiet. They had a general sense of overall profitability but couldn't tell me which clients or projects were actually making them money. Further investigation revealed their highest-maintenance client—who took up nearly 30% of their bandwidth—was actually losing them money on almost every project.

How we fixed it: We didn't need complex analytics tools. I helped them build a straightforward Google Sheets dashboard that tracked hours accurately and calculated profit margins by client and project type. We set up a monthly financial review where my friend forces himself to confront the numbers and make necessary adjustments.

This simple change led to renegotiating terms with problematic clients and saying "no" to projects that matched patterns of previous money-losers. Their profit margin increased by 14% in the first quarter without acquiring any new clients.

The "We've always done it this way" syndrome

The most challenging barrier wasn't processes or technology—it was mindset. My friend had built the agency from scratch and developed deep attachments to certain ways of working, even when they no longer served the growing team.

How we fixed it: I suggested implementing a "pitch session" where any team member could propose a process improvement. The only requirement: they had to volunteer to implement it themselves. This shifted my friend's role from gatekeeper to enabler.

The results were immediate. Their junior designer created a template system that cut production time in half. Their copywriter developed a client questionnaire that eliminated rounds of revisions. The team became invested in continuous improvement because they owned both the problems and solutions.

Paving the way to operational efficiency with innovative solutions

The real results

Six months after implementing these changes, the agency isn't perfect—no business is. But they've reclaimed over 25 hours per week of productive time, increased their profit margins significantly, and haven't had to work a weekend in months.

My friend recently told me the biggest change is in how it feels to run the business. Instead of constantly fighting fires and feeling perpetually behind, they can focus on strategy and creative work—the reason they started the agency in the first place.

The lesson I took from this project: Most efficiency problems aren't about needing better tools. They're about having the courage to confront unproductive habits and create clarity around how work should flow.

What productivity killers are lurking in your business? I'm willing to bet they fall into one of these five categories—and are more fixable than you might think.

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Even better, why not set up a meeting with me at growthwebs.com/calendar? Let's check out what you have!